1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to insect artificial media protein supplement derived from eggs of insects used for rearing beneficial insects such as, for example, the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella, the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella, etc., which can enhance the fecundity of beneficial insects such as, for example, the insidious flower bug, Orius insidiosus, reared on an artificial diet. It also relates to the use of the supplements in an artificial insect diet as well as an artificial diet containing at least one of the protein supplements.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the greatest needs in the field of biological control is to be able to produce insect natural enemies such as predaceous and parasitic beneficial insects at a reasonable cost so that they can be used in lieu of conventional pest control. In the United States and throughout the world, the application of synthetic chemical insecticides is the primary method of controlling insect pests of many agricultural commodities, including food, fiber, and ornamental crops. However, there is an increasing interest in reducing the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers and to make agriculture more sustainable. Biological control is recognized as the best alternative to the use of chemical insecticides for controlling insect pests.
A major stumbling block to using biological control on a large scale as an alternative to pesticides is that it has been impossible to produce adequate numbers of predatory insects to effect reduction of large outbreaks of pest populations. For example, arthropod predators and parasites have been used successfully for decades to control insect pests, however, the scale of their use has been limited because of inadequate methods of economically producing these predatory insects. Thus, one of the greatest needs in the field of biological control of insects is the mass production of insects's natural enemies at a reasonable cost. However, despite intensive research, for many years, on artificial media suitable for rearing predatory insects, it is still necessary to rear these beneficial insects on their natural hosts/prey or on unnatural factitious hosts. These classical methods are too expensive to allow large scale use of beneficial insects in commercial agriculture. (Grenier et al, IN: Pest Management in the Subtropic, Rosen et al. Eds., 181-201, Intercept, Andover, 1994).
The scientific literature has reported that the feeding behavior of predatory insects involves feeding on hemolymph and/or body fluids from impaled prey. For example, the larva of nearly all neuropterans, which include some of the most important families in biological control, such as for example, Chrysopidae (Green lacewings) and Hemerobiidae (brown lacewings), which attack many agricultural pests including whiteflies, aphids, scale insects, and mealy bugs, possess long curved mandibles which act like forceps to grasp and pierce the prey and suck out the body fluids (Debach, Biological Control by Natural Enemies, Cambridge University Press, 1974). Further, Debach shows the predatory big-eyed bug Geocoris, another predatory insect useful for biocontrol of important economic crop insects, sucking body fluids of its prey through its proboscis. Thus, the predator feeding models in the literature suggested that the best artificial medium for these liquid feeders should have a liquid form. E. S. Vanderzant (Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 63, 336-338, 1973) and S. A. Hassan and K. S. Hagen (Zeitschrift fur angewante Entomologie, Volume 86, 315-320, 1978) report liquid diets for rearing Chrysopa carnea Stephens (lacewings) larvae. More recently, semi-solid meat-based artificial diets have been described for rearing Geocoris punctipes (Say) (A. C. Cohen, and N. M. Urias, The Southwestern Entomologist, Volume 11, 171-176, 1986); A. C. Cohen and R. T. Staten in Applications of Genetics to Arthropods of Biological Control Significance, Eds. S. K. Narang et al., CRC Press, Inc., Chapter 7, 121-132, 1994).
Grenier et al. (supra) present a review of over a half century of research on development of artificial media for ectoparasitoids and predators. However, in spite of the importance of predatory insects as biological control agents for economically important insect pests, very few of these artificial media are in use in the commercial production of any entomophage. Thus, production of these beneficial insects still involves the costly method of rearing them on their natural hosts/prey or on unnatural factitious hosts.
The insidious flower bug, Orius insidiosus (Say) (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) is a polyphagous predator of thrips, spider mites, aphids, and insect eggs and small larvae. This predator can be reared on an artificial diet devoid of insect components; however, the females have poor fecundity. Orius insidiosus is produced on natural hosts by more than 33 commercial producers of beneficials (Assoc. Natur. Bio-control Producers, 2001). Although Orius spp. feed on plant material such as pollen and beans, fecundity is highest in prey-reared females (Kiman and Yeargan, Ann. Entom. Soc. Am., Volume 78, 464-467, 1985; Richards and Schmidt, Entomol. Exp. Appl., Volume 80, 325-333 1996; Vacante et al., Entomophagia, Vomume 42, 493-498 1997). Thus, insectaries generally rear Orius species on eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella Zeller, which are expensive, and a cheaper alternative is needed for commercial rearing. Although rearing methods for producing O. insidiosus on natural prey are published (Castane and Zalom, Biol. Control, Volume 4, 88-91 1994; Schmit et al., Canadian Entomol., Volume 127, 445-447 1995), an economical artificial diet that would produce O. insidiosus with high fecundity is needed to streamline and reduce the cost of production (Waage et al., In: R. Singh and R. F. Morre (Eds.), Handbook of Insect Rearing, Elsevier, New York, 45-66 1985; Yazlovetsky, In: T. E. Anderson and N. C. Leppla (Eds), Advances in Insect Rearing for Research and Pest Management, Westview Press Inc., Boulder, Colo., 41-62 1992; Vinson, 1994; Thompson and Hagen, In: T. S. Bellows and T. W. Fisher (Eds), Handbook of Biological Control, Academic Press, New York, 594-652, 1999). Currently the types of nutrients that affect O. insidiosus in an artificial diet are unknown.
Weiru and Ren (Chinese Jour. Biol. Control, Volume 5, 9-12, 1989) reared Orius sauteri on artificial diet composed of chicken egg yolk, soy protein, and brewer's yeast, but they did not report the fecundity of females produced.
There remains a need in the art for an effective diet for rearing beneficial insects such as, for example, Orius species that improves the fecundity of females. The present invention provides protein supplements which will significantly improve fecundity when added to an artificial diet. These protein supplements are different from prior art artificial diets for rearing beneficial insects such as Orius spp.